Murray ‘yes’, Cantwell ‘no’ on bailout

Washington Sen. Patty Murray voted for a $700 billion package designed to help the beleaguered financial industry but her Democratic colleague Sen. Maria Cantwell voted against it.

The Senate plan, decried as a bailout by critics but seen as a rescue package by those who say it is needed to prevent an economic calamity, passed 74-25 Wednesay night.

Murray

It now moves to the House, which on Monday defeated its own bailout package.

In a statement Murray said:

“Today communities across America, and far from Wall Street, are hurting. Families are struggling to fill up the tank, to afford health care and to send their kids to college. And even if they’ve played by the rules, paid their bills on time and have good credit, they are now at risk because of the Bush Administration’s failure to rein in Wall Street greed…This is not the legislation I would have written. It’s not legislation I wanted to support. But this is not the time to tell America’s families, ‘Sorry, you’re on your own’ and hope for the best. And that’s why I support the bill we’ll vote on today. “

Cantwell said:

Cantwell

“While there are parts of this emergency rescue bill I am supportive of, such as expanding FDIC bank deposit coverage to $250,000 and implementing more reasonable accounting rules, I am not supportive of a structure where the government only gets companies’ bad assets. This approach leaves the government with less resources, the troubled companies with less working capital, and in the end may not solve the market’s underlying financial problems. If the government were to make more traditional cash equity infusion into these companies it would spur ten to twelve more times private sector investments into the stressed capital markets.”